The Bell Of Fate
by Raven On The Writing Desk
Summary: The Toltramon, the Dragon Bell, the Doom Bell, or the Fate Bell. It is said that the world will be engulfed in flames when it opens its eye and begins to ring. It's been one hundred years or so, and we learn of Lila's fate, and how a once cut thread of fate between her and an old Shinigami can be repaired. Prequel: "His Black Rose"
1. In The Beginning

"Not many know the real story about Undertaker and Lila the years after both had died...Most of you trainee Reapers don't have time to sit and listen to the stories of your elders."

Outside the walls of the Reaper Academy, a fierce storm lambasted the area. The hour was late, and a dozen young Reapers in training had been unfortunate enough to have to stay behind at the Academy during the storm. At the arrival of their nameless elder and with an excuse to get out of paper work, they all fled their respective desks and flocked behind their black-haired elder into an empty conference room. At the head sat the elder, and the wide-eyed youths sat around the table, leaned forwards slightly with earnest interest in hearing the tale. The elder glanced lazily around to ensure he had all eyes on him, and when he felt he had enough attention, he leaned back in his chair, and tapped his fingers on his chin for a moment.

"...Well...I suppose this story begins with two seemingly unconnected things. A bell, a beautiful yet deadly object in this story, and a women, a beautiful yet dead women..."


	2. Lila

Black, polished shoes were tapping the clean white tile impatiently. It was an eerie sound in an otherwise quiet room, occupied by only six people. Five of those people stood behind tall podiums in a half circle around a female, who was looking rather annoyed at them. She was dressed in a suit identical to them, identical to all of them. A thick silence had saturated the conference room for a few minutes, before the female shattered the silence with an outburst,

"But WHY can't I go and see him!? That's why I was transferred here, right!? Because he and I were in love!?"

The Shinigami in front of her straightened his glasses, a bit startled by the sudden outburst after so much silence, not that it showed. He cleared his throat, and spoke in a monotone voice,

"Ehem...no, that is not why at all. You were transferred here because we are in need of assistance from other experienced Reapers. It was just a coincidence, I doubt he'll even remember you, the old bat. Reapers from the States have all sorts of crazy names, 'Lila' wouldn't strike him as too out of the ordinary. You have changed a lot since then, and so has he."

This was true. She was thinner, hair longer and pulled back into a low pony tail, just to keep it out of her face. Her eyes were predominantly green, but there was still a good ringing of typical yellow. Shiny silver glasses frames were a stark contrast to the slightly faded and worn suit she wore, refusing to accept a new one, now that she had left the States. Still, Lila didn't much believe that Undertaker would have merely forgotten her, or at least she was too scared to even consider it, and had to bite back a retort as another Shinigami to her left, whose name she'd never cared much to learn, spoke up,

"Furthermore, you are forbidden to go and see that Undertaker! Your papers came with you, and it is very clear your work is very much governed by your emotion! Frankly, I don't know HOW you have not contracted the Thorns of Death at this point, but it is only a matter of time! Going to see that man would only complicate things, and put you in more danger than what is necessary!"

Her eyes narrowed. Of course there was always danger associated with this job, and the summons she had received had been rather vague about exactly what was going on that was so important that one of the more experienced Reapers was suddenly being pulled out of that hellhole of chaos that was the States and thrust back to a place she hadn't been for one hundred and some odd years, especially considering she'd never worked here.

"What EXACTLY is the nature of this emergency?"

That seemed to bring the thickness of silence back, and the rising of anxiety with it. The Reaper at the front pulled from a briefcase an old and worn photograph of a large bell, maybe four feet tall from the ground to the shoulder, the mouth sporting a five foot circumference. It appeared to be made of predominantly black onyx, decorated with odd geometric shapes. It had a belt across the deadline, and peeking out from it was what looked like a large, closed dragon's eye made of rubies and sapphires. There were other small gems dusting it, and it gave off an eerie atmosphere of gloom, even just looking at the picture. It seemed to hang in an open air rigging on top of a mountain, presumably Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England. The land around it was wild and undisturbed so far by human intervention. Lila turned away rather quickly, unable to quell the rising sense of doom when looking at it. The picture was quickly stuck back into an envelope, the envelope shoved into the locking briefcase it had come from, and a new Shinigami, to her right, began to speak in a voice that held more emotion than the others, even if just slightly,

"That is the Toltramon; the Dragon Bell, the Doom Bell, or the Fate Bell. It is said that the world will be engulfed in flames when it opens its eye and begins to ring. In order to guard it and keep it sleeping, a group of our best Reapers were sent to guard it from those who would want to wake it up, mostly the likes of demons driven mad with hunger. A few days ago, they sent us an urgent message, that the bell was beginning to move, though its eye hadn't opened. It moves only a few times per day, but this is very bad news. The Bell is beginning to wake up, and we need new ideas on how to soothe it back to sleep. If it was to ring right now, all living things would perish. We have no safe house prepared to evacuate to."

Lila had been taught briefly about the Toltramon, but not much. It wasn't supposed to wake up for a few thousand more years, so no one said much about it.

"We have summoned a few Reapers from every Division to try to come up with a plan, and so far we have failed."

He kept talking, but Lila had stopped listening after the explanation about the Toltramon. Her mind was consumed with plans to go and find Undertaker again, even if he really didn't remember her. No doubt they hadn't said a thing about the Toltramon to Undertaker, and if it did wake, the working Shinigami would surely be long gone. Even if they couldn't find a way to soothe the Doom Bell, and humans, demons, angels, and Shinigami alike perished in the flames, as the legend goes, at least she and Undertaker could die hand in hand, like they had always wished so many years ago, when London was wild and untamed.


	3. Undertaker

Lila hadn't listened to anything else about the Toltramon and impending doom after hearing she couldn't go to see Undertaker. For hours she had sat, numbly, in a conference room with the other summoned Shinigami as they droned on about their plans and ideas on how to lure the Doom Bell back into its eternal sleep. She didn't say a thing, rather just sat there quietly, occasionally looking around to make it appear as if she was actually listening.

Hours later, when she left the Shinigami Dispatch for the streets of London, the sky was dark, and she was still occupied with her own mind and her own problems. She didn't even notice she was hoping across the roofs of London homes, but thankfully she was moving so fast that before anyone who saw her could comprehend what they had seen, she was already gone.

It wasn't until a roof tile slipped out from beneath Lila's polished dress shoe, and clattered to the alley below, was she finally brought out of her thoughts. A curious rat digging through the trash tilted his head up at her curiously, and Lila finally stopped to see where he wandering feet had taken her.

She was standing on the roof of one of the seedy businesses in the backstreets of London, one of the ones hidden by the rich, expensive exterior of prosperous London businesses. It was a vaguely familiar place, just a slight pull off nostalgia, but looking around, she didn't see anything she even vaguely remembered. All the old land marks from decades ago were gone. She jumped off the roof, and landed with a gentle crunch of rocks and broken glass beneath polished shoes. Lila couldn't deny this little pull she was feeling, a slight familiarity, but she quickly knew why. It was allies like this she had once wandered, a confused and trapped spirit, before she was found by Undertaker, and invited into his home. Suddenly, rage and defiance swelled in her chest.

 _Why can't I see him? How will they ever know? It is my right! I am no longer a mere child, nor am I a teenage girl hopelessly infatuated with a man who could not care less about her! He must still be in this town, or else those other stiffs on the Council wouldn't have bothered to forbid me from going to find him…_

At the time, and to her memory, Undertaker had been only an apprentice, so surely by now he had grown into, and taken the name of, his profession as his mentor had, this she was sure of. How many morgues could there possibly be in this city for her to check? She knew he was still alive, because she had seen his statue in the Dispatch of his younger days as a world famous Reaper, and if he was dead, again, forbidding her from going to see him wouldn't have been necessary.

Unknown to Lila, she was on the wrong side of town. His shop was on the other side, so she began to wander through the allies, moving at about half Shinigami speed so she could keep a sharp eye on the buildings she was passing. She wandered for many, many hours, only stopping occasionally but never for more than a minute. Polished shoes made a monotonous and familiar crunch as she walked over glass and debris in the allies, but she wasn't paying attention any longer. It was like walking in a daze, and all the buildings seemed to blur into one another. She didn't even notice when the heavens opened up and began pouring down rain, large, cold drops that soaked her to the bone and caused her suit to stick to her skin. She was quickly growing disheartened, and a bit dizzy. Unlike demons, Shinigami still had some basic human needs to attend to, like food and rest, and she hadn't gotten either of them since the day before she arrived at the London Branch of the Dispatch. She was rapidly approaching the thirty-six hour mark without either necessity and it was wearing on her. Lila was growing tired, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and the cold rain was sapping what reserves were not being exhausted by her walk. By the time the rays of the sun penetrated into the back allies, she had stopped to catch her "breath". She longed to open a portal with what remained of her strength, and go back to the Dispatch. Surely they would put her up with room and food if she asked? But she couldn't, her guards were too far down, and she didn't even know that hot, frustrated tears had begun mixing with cold rain drops on her face.

She finally stopped, falling to one knee, panting, though not for breath. It was an expression of her inner turmoil, but only now that she had stopped, did she feel something...familiar. A sort of primal feeling that told her to wipe the water from her eyes, and take one last look around. Lacking the strength to do otherwise, she surrendered, and stood while wiping her eyes as well as she could. She turned in a slow circle, and that when she saw _it._

It was like an angel, though falling apart and a bit decrepit, holding a beacon reading _UNDERTAKER_. If she had breath, the sight would have taken it away.

A shiver, though of cold or excitement she couldn't say, ran down her spine, and her heels were spurred suddenly into motion. She approached the door quickly, but when her fingertips touched the cold doorknob, all of her motivation suddenly drained away. She had changed so much, and it had been so long...would he remember her? Would he still love her, even though she was no longer the soft and sweet noblewomen of the past? She dropped her hand and backed away as if the angel had suddenly become a demon, turned tail, and ran. Surely, he would never love her as he once had.

Little did she know, that just on the other side of the door that separated them, Undertaker had seen her approach through the water-distorted windows, and at the same time her fingertips touched the handle outside, long, black fingernails had touched it on the inside. He caught sight of himself in a mirror, and lost his nerve as well. He was no longer the young, unmarked, clean-cut gentleman from all those years ago. His withdrew his hand suddenly, as if the doorknob had hurt him, and he too backed away. Surely, she would never love him as she once had.


	4. United

Only after Lila had fled from his doorstep did Undertaker regret his hesitance in opening the door, berating himself for acting like a schoolgirl afraid of confronting her crush. He wondered if perhaps Lila had been some sort of mirage, as the water that came down the windows in a sheet may have caused him to just see what he wanted to see. He drifted back to his coffin, but found himself unable to enter. There was a strong pull like a magnet trying to pull him back to where she had once stood. Perhaps she was merely a mirage, but perhaps...perhaps she was real!

Lila ran and ran through the allies until the adrenaline that had given her new energy began to be filtered out of her system. She slowed to a stop and doubled over, holding her knees and "breathing" heavily. Things were spinning, her eyes were blurry, though if it was with tears, the rain that continued to fall, or exhaustion she didn't know. A part of her yearned to go back to the door, if only to just get out of the rain, but a larger part of her couldn't do it, couldn't go back so soon and face possible rejection.

The rain was falling faster, and the droplets becoming sharper. The rain hitting the roofs did, however, provide a sort of calming white noise, but she was getting more and more cold standing in the open.

She looked over to a dead-end section of the alley that would provide a modicum of shelter due to the close proximity of the two buildings, and walked slowly down it. It wasn't the worse dead end she could have picked, but certainly she wouldn't sit on the ground. She needed rest, even if it was just a little bit. Her head was pounding and blood was roaring in her ears. Walking to a dark corner, she hit her back against the wall with a light thump, and slowly slid down the wall, dress coat bunching up awkwardly behind her, as she settled into a crouch. She crossed her arms over her knees, buried her face in her arms, and within minutes drifted into an uncomfortable, light sleep.

Back at the shop, Undertaker had made a decision. He grabbed a long, gray trench coat that would keep his robes dry and his hat, which was sitting by the door, and nearly flung himself out the door, eyes scanning the area to decide where she had gone. He still didn't know for sure he had seen Lila, his Lila, but an invisible force was driving his heels, and he had no choice but to heed it. She would accept him, she had to! He longed to take the fast road, jumping and running over the rooftops for a better view, but he was too well known to risk being seen. That already but him at a lagging pace behind her, because she wouldn't care if she was seen, she didn't work in this sector any way. As Undertaker started his quick walk into the pouring rain, he could only pray to whatever god was there to listen that she had stayed in the city.

Sometime during Lila's light, uncomfortable sleep, the rain had stopped, and the clouds parted to reveal a hot, beating sun. From where Lila had crouched, she was also shielded from the heat, but the hot sun evaporates the water from her clothes, and caused a boggy feeling to stick to her skin, only adding to how uncomfortable she was

Undertaker, unknowingly, followed her trail almost exactly. He stopped to check every nook and cranny, and more than once he considered giving up and going home, back to the shop, and convincing himself he had merely been seeing things at the late, stormy hour, when he had already been thinking about Lila.

He had taken off his trench coat and flung it over his shoulder as he walked, the black robes really absorbing a lot of the heat from the sun. He was growing tired too, and he was nearly at the edge of his rope, about to turn back. The only reason he kept walking was an unexplained nagging force that kept him on his forward path. He stopped, and decided to turn back, when something, a small hunched form in a dark alley, caught his eye.

Keeping close to the wall in case it was some sort of animal, he crept down the dead end alley at the end of which something moved about. It felt the time crawled along at a snail's pace, but when he finally could see what was handled in the corner, he felt as if he was suffocating.

It was a numb with shock feeling, when he finally came upon the women in a terrible sleep, his hopeless, desperate search having actually paid off.

His gaze, though hidden behind his curtain bangs, was not lost on Lila, and after a few moments, she wearily lifted her head to look up at Undertaker, and the look on her face surely must have been mirrored on his own; shock, joy, disbelief, confusion. As she saw him, Lila immediately decided she was just seeing things on account of hunger and exhaustion, but when he took hold of her upper arms and helped her to her feet, to which she winced as her stiff limbs straightened back out, she realized that what she was seeing was actually real!

He was taller than she, so with the two standing at full height her head only came to his neck, so she looked up at him, and he looked down at her, and time seemed to stop for them in that alley. As if they were pulled together by a force, they embraced aggressively, she grabbing fist fulls of his black robe, face buried in his hair for a familiar smell, and he had his chin on the top of her head, one black-nailed hand splayed out on her back, the other tangled in her hair. It was in that moment that both of their fears of rejection were put to rest. He loved her as she had, and he loved her as he had.


	5. Ideas

For a long time the two Shinigami stood in the partial shade of the alley, embracing one another as if at any second the other would crumble out of existence. In fact, some decades ago Undertaker had a dream that Lila was here, embracing him as she was now, when she suddenly turned into thousands of little, white butterflies and flew away, never to be seen again.

After what felt like an eternity, Undertaker was brought out of his thoughts by a light pressure on his chest. After a second he realized Lila had snaked her hand between them and was lightly pushing him away. Reluctantly, he let her go and took a step or two back. Lila opened her mouth, and closed it. Then a few seconds later she did it again. It seemed she was at a loss for words just like he. What could either of them say, really? When they had both been alive, Undertaker had never actually confessed his feeling for her, he didn't think. He peeked through his long bangs, and in the back of his mind he thought about how different they were, how they had always been. Lila was still pale as she used to be, but her frame was bigger, filled out more with muscle, her hair was longer and fell down her back in a tight braid, and her eyes had a curious uniqueness, even though they were the same dual-colors as every Shinigami eye.

Lila was regarding him as well; how long his hair had gotten and how it fell to obscure the eyes she had once loved to see, and the scars that marred his skin, and the robes he wore with his silvery hair made him a nearly perfect picture of the first Shinigami, the well known and most often depicted Grim Reaper. She barely noticed her mouth had opened and she had begun to speak,

"I...I would like to speak with you."

After a bit of rearranging and scrounging, Undertaker had been able to clear a large space in the middle of the morgue for them to sit. On a coffin he placed a pot of tea and a plate of bone biscuits. He was also able to bring out two large, old, ornate chairs he had taken as collateral from a couple unable to pay or amuse him. He poured her a pot of tea and listened as she told him of everything she had done in these past years; of all her triumphs and hardships and funny experiences, and lastly she began to tell him about the Toltramon. Politely, Undertaker listened and sipped his tea and munched on biscuits, and could not bring himself to interrupt her as she told him the few ideas she had retained from the meeting. He really wasn't shocked at what she was telling him, because he had known about the Bell for many weeks already. He had never been sure, it was just a rumor that reached his ears from the underground, but he wasn't surprised it had turned out to be true.

As the hours passed and the light of the moon gave away to that of the sun he finally held up a hand for her to be silent. The ideas had gone from things that could work to absolutely absurd. Together they had gone through two pots of tea and three plates of biscuits, and Lila was starting to realize just how exhausted she was, especially now that she was warm and had a full belly. She wanted to sleep but she would stay awake and listen to Undertaker as he had listened to her. She eyed him expectantly, sure that he would come up with an ingenious and foolproof plan to lull the Toltramon back to sleep for a while. After a moment of thinking, he spoke,

"Lila, unfortunately, none of those ideas are good."

She snorted in offence, but he continued to speak,

"You and the others are welcome to try, but If the Toltramon is truly about to wake...we can do nothing."


	6. Go Home

He gave a little chuckle at her shocked expression and explained,

"The Toltramon cannot simply be rocked and soothed and lulled back to sleep as if it is some child. I have known for many weeks now that the Dragon Bell was awake, but I was never completely sure until now. Everything will be consumed in a great fire, and I suggest you focus more on the overload of souls that will need to be collected rather than trying and failing to stop the Fate Bell."

Lila removed her glasses and rubbed her bleary eyes. Her sight was getting blurry with sleep and she was having a hard time focusing on what he was saying. She cleaned the lenses of her glasses with her shirt and looked up at him. His fuzzy shape move away, and then she felt a slightly scratchy blanket being draped over her shoulders. Putting her glasses back on, she looked back at him, but her vision was still blurry. Undertaker gestured to a hall leading to a back room.

"You need to rest if you are to be ready. It won't be long until the Bell awakens fully and you cannot afford to be tired, unless you want to risk the Thorns of Death."

Lila gave him a grateful smile, pulled her blanket tighter around her, and followed him down the hall to the back room. It was small and windowless but there was a bed that looked to have been freshly made. This had been his room many years ago, and had only begun sleeping in coffins to honor his deceased master. The room looked like it was also a storage room for extra coffins and crafting supplies, but it was well organized and fairly clean. Lila walked over and sat down on the bed, giving Undertaker a grateful smile. No words needed to be exchanged between them as he returned the smile, and left. As soon as he was gone and Lila's head hit the pillow she was asleep.

The following morning he cooked her breakfast, but it was closer to noon by the time she was awake and back out to the chairs and coffin that had been set up the day before. She had straightened her suit and hair as well as she could, but it was pretty clear she had recently gotten up. He brought her a bowl of oatmeal, since he didn't really keep much normal food around, and sat beside her.

"Lila, it won't be safe for you here. I want you to return to the States the first chance you get."

Lila looked up at Undertaker and saw for the first time the man not smiling. She relented and agreed that she would go home and stay out of the affairs of London. Undertaker knew she was strong and could take care of herself, but she was also young and still strongly led by her emotions. She finished her bowl, set it down, and walked over to Undertaker, hugging him as tightly as she had the day before. Since he was taller than her, she had to get up on her tiptoes a bit to kiss his pale, cold cheek and whisper into his ear,

"...I love you."


	7. Love

Unfortunately, about two weeks later, despite the work of the Shinigami Dispatch, the eye of the Toltramon fully opened, and the bell began to ring. It was a deep, haunting sound, and you couldn't help but stop to listen. It was somehow nostalgic and calming, though over the sounds of people screaming and the fires burning very few people we able to hear it. Lila had returned to the States three days after her encounter with Undertaker, and two days after that she announced her retirement. Shinigami at the Dispatch, especially the young recruits, were divided in belief on what really caused the roaring fires; the Phantomhive hound or the Toltramon, but either way the Dispatch was busier than it had ever been and stayed that way for about a week afterwards. A lot of the shops and buildings in the allies of London, like where Undertaker's shop was, were destroyed or sustained heavy damage since they were so old and the dry wood and old furniture most contained acted as fuel for the blaze. After a few years, London had mostly repaired itself, but it did still have some scars from the accident. The allies were affected the worst, and had become blackened empty shells that couldn't be repaired but would cause more problems if they were torn down. Lila liked to walk these allies now and again. She came to London once or twice a year to see how the mortals were doing in making their repairs. Today was a particularly bleary day. The sky was dark, and warned of rain, which would clear the streets of pedestrians once it started. She was back in London and walking among the hollow, blackened shells of buildings that loomed. They were a bit unnerving, with open doors and windows yawning at her like open mouths ready to suck up any passerby who came too close. Lila was brought out of her thoughts suddenly as the rain begun, but luckily it wasn't too heavy. That changed, however, and by the time she reached her destination it had turned into large, cold drops. She looked at the small building, dwarfed by the ones around it. She settled down on her knees.

"...Sorry I am late. I still haven't found out anything about where you have moved off to. I know you're out there, I just don't know where...can you hear me?"  
Lila paused, but the only thing she heard was the loud splattering of the raindrops hitting the cobblestones. She laughed and answered her own question,

"No, I really didn't think you could."

Lila then removed the umbrella from her shoulder. She placed the handle on the ground so the rain would slide off, and leaned the thin metal bar up against the fallen remains of the sign that read "Undertaker".


End file.
